The name literally means ‘gathering [at the] sea [to watch surfing].’ This land section and village, at Kalapana, Hawaiʻi, was noted for its surf and its black sand beach. The black sand was formed by steam explosions that occurred when a lava flow entered the ocean in about 1750. (Pukui)

“Kaimu is pleasantly situated near the sea shore, on the SE side of the island, standing on a bed of lava considerably decomposed, and covered over with a light and fertile soil. It is adorned with plantations, groves of cocoa-nuts and clumps of kou trees.”

“It has a sandy beach, where canoes may land with safety; and according to the houses numbered to-day contains 725 inhabitants. Including the villages in the immediate vicinity, along the coast, the populations would probably amount to 2,000; and, if water could be procured near at hand, it would form an eligible missionary station.”

“There are several wells in the village, containing brackish water, which has passed from the sea, through the cells of the lava, undergoing a kind of filtration, and it is collected in hollows scooped out to receive it. The natives told us, that, at the distance of about a mile, there is plenty of fresh water.” (Ellis from 1823)

“The most important reason that settlement in the Kalapana area was on the coast was the availability of fresh food from the sea. Fishing was on the shore, which also hosted gathering of shellfish, crabs and limu, and from canoes.”

“Taro and breadfruit were major crops of the better watered coastal areas in the east but especially in the forested uplands. Bananas, sugar cane, and ‘awa were also grown in the uplands.” (Hawai‘i County)

“We passed a potato patch in the broken lava which exceeded anything I had seen. Not a particle of soil was anywhere to be seen, and the holes dug among the stones to receive the potatoes were some of them six feet in depth-thus securing a degree of moisture and shelter from the sun-though no more soil than at the surface.”

“There are but few people in this region. They are miserably poor, & for some time past have been almost in a state of famine. They get their living by fishing, making salt, & getting fern roots & a few potatoes in the mountains.”

“Their salt works are on the naked lava near the sea, the water of which is evaporated in little cups or vessels made of the Ki leaf & holding of course but a minute quantity of water.”

“These are laid in parallel rows over several acres, & the water poured into them a little at a time from Calabashes. The process is an extremely slow one, tho’ the salt is s[aid] to be excellent for the table. It is sold at the exceedingly low prices of 25 cts a bag, which will contain I sh’d judge ½ a bushel or more” (Chester Lyman, 1846)

“At the beach the road enters first the village of Kaimu, exclusively Hawaiian, with a large grove of cocoanut trees surrounding a fine semi-circular sand beach. Care should be exercised in bathing on account of the under tow.”

“Less than a mile further on, westwards, lies the village of Kalapana, one of the largest Hawaiian villages in the Islands. There are no white inhabitants, and only a couple of Chinese stores. Here is the headquarters for a couple of stages, which make irregular trips to Pahoa (Rate: 75 cents a passenger one way.)” (Kinney, 1913)

The district of Puna is distinguished as one of the least awarded private lands from the 1848 Māhele and Kuleana Act. Only 19 awards of private land were made in the entire district.

Of these, 16 awards were made in large tracts to 10 chiefs who lived outside of Puna, and three small parcels were granted, to commoners Baranaba, Hewahewa and Haka (Territory of Hawai`i 1929.)

The small number of land awards was not because Puna had a small population. In 1854, four years after the Kuleana awards were granted, the estimated population for Puna was 2,702 (Hawaii Mission Children’s Library 1854.)

Moreover, the 1858 tax records for Puna shows that 894 males over the age of 20 paid poll taxes in Puna ten years after the deadline for filing for land awards (Hawai‘i State Archives 1858.)

An examination of the possible reasons why almost the entire population of Puna did not enjoy the benefits of the Māhele and Kuleana Act lends an understanding of why Hawaiians living in the district remained outside of the mainstream of Hawai`i’s economic and social development.

First, Puna was isolated from the mainstream of economic, social and political developments. It is possible that the Hawaiians in Puna were not aware of the process or did not realize the significance of the new law.

Second, it is possible that the Puna Hawaiians did not have a way to raise the cash needed for the land surveys, which cost between $6 to $12. Wages at the time were normally between 12 1/2 cents and 33 cents a day.

However, there were few wage-earning jobs in Puna. Cash would have to be raised from selling extra fish or other products, which was difficult given the subsistence living of many Hawaiians.

Third, at least some Puna Hawaiians filed their land claims after the deadline. In an 1851 petition to the legislature, several Puna residents asked to be issued land grants without penalty, as they had filed their claims after February 14, 1848 (Allen 1979).

Under the Māhele, the bulk of Puna lands were designated as public lands either to the monarchy, as “Crown” lands or to the government of the Hawaiian Kingdom. (McGregor)

In March 1990, Kīlauea’s ongoing Puʻu ʻŌʻō-Kupaianaha eruption (that began on January 3, 1983) entered its most destructive period of the 20th century when lava flows turned toward Kalapana, an area cherished for its historic sites and black sand beaches.

By the end of the summer, the entire community, including a church, store, and 100 homes, were buried beneath 50-80 feet of lava.

As the lava flows advanced eastward, they took to the sea, replacing the palm-lined Kaimū Bay with a plain of lava that now extends nearly 1,000-feet beyond the original shoreline.

In late 1990, a new lava tube finally diverted lava away from Kalapana and back into the National Park. (USGS)

Walking in the mauka regions of Puna can be extremely hazardous because of the numerous lava cracks hidden by vegetation in the forest (some with over 30-feet vertical drops and 30+ feet wide).

Sometimes, when walking in the mauka forests of Puna, there is abundant uluhe fern; you effectively walk ‘on’ uluhe, not ‘through’ it. You could find yourself walking over the edge of a crack, before you know it.

Local residents have reported numerous incidents in which individuals and dogs have fallen into the lava cracks and suffered serious injury. In addition, in the event of an emergency, there is no cellular phone service, and difficulty of emergency rescue, etc.

It is not just cracks from old flows that are a problem. Starting in June 27, 2014, lava from the Puʻu ʻŌʻō vent had been over-running Wao Kele o Puna.

We must also be cognizant of the ongoing eruption; the flow that headed to Pāhoa ran through Wao Kele o Puna. While the flow is not causing problems in Pāhoa at this time, outbreaks recently covered portions of Wao Kele o Puna.

The flow has since been redirected makai of the vent and not affecting Wao Kele o Puna. (Information in this section is from the USGS website, searched December 27, 2016)

Kīlauea’s ongoing Puʻu ʻŌʻō eruption, which began in January 1983, ranks as the most voluminous outpouring of lava from the volcano’s East Rift Zone in the past five centuries.

By December 2012, flows had covered 125.5 km2 (48.4 mi2) with about 4 km3 (1 mi3) of lava, and had added 202 hectares (500 acres) of new land to Kīlauea’s southeastern shore. Lava flows had also destroyed 214 structures, and resurfaced 14.3 km (8.9 mi) of highway, burying them with as much as 35 m (115 ft) of lava.

The eruption can be roughly divided in to five time periods. From 1983 to 1986, a series of short-lived lava fountains built a cinder-and-spatter cone later named Puʻu ʻŌʻō.

In 1986, the eruption shifted 3 km (1.8 mi) northeastward along Kīlauea’s east rift zone, where a nearly continuous outpouring of lava built a broad shield, Kupaianaha, and sent flows to the coast for more than five years.

In 1992, the eruption moved back uprift and new vents opened on the southwestern flank of Puʻu ʻŌʻō. Over the next 15 years, nearly continuous effusion of lava from these vents sent flows to the ocean, mainly within Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park.

The most significant change during the 1992–2007 interval was a brief uprift fissure eruption and the corresponding collapse of Puʻu ʻŌʻō’s west flank in January 1997.

In June 2007, an hours-long, unwitnessed eruption uprift of Puʻu ʻŌʻō led to renewed collapse within the cone and a brief hiatus in activity.

When the eruption resumed in July 2007, new vents opened between Puʻu ʻŌʻō and Kupaianaha, sending flows to Kīlauea’s southeastern coast until early 2011.

This activity was terminated by another short-lived eruption uprift of Puʻu ʻŌʻō in March 2011. Activity at Puʻu ʻŌʻō then resumed with a brief breakout from the western flank of the cone in August 2011, followed by the opening of a new, persistent vent on Puʻu ʻŌʻō’s northeast flank in September 2011. Flows from this latter vent remained active on Kīlauea’s southeastern flank as of December 2012.

On June 27, 2014, new vents opened on the northeast flank of the Puʻu ʻŌʻō cone that fed a narrow lava flow to the east-northeast.

On August 18, the flow entered a ground crack, traveled underground for several days, then resurfaced to form a small lava pad. The sequence was repeated twice more over the following days with lava entering other cracks and reappearing farther downslope.

In this way, the flow had advanced approximately 8.2-miles from the vent, or to within 0.8-miles of the eastern boundary of the Wao Kele o Puna Forest Reserve, by the afternoon of September 3, 2014.

Lava emerged from the last crack on September 6, 2014, forming a surface flow that initially moved to the north, then to the northeast, at a rate of 1,300-ft/day). This flow advanced downslope before stalling in Pāhoa on October 30 about 170-yards from Pāhoa Village Road. Breakouts upslope continued to widen the flow within the Wao Kele o Puna property.

Puʻu ʻŌʻō continues to erupt, but the lava flow from it has stopped running through Wao Kele o Puna, but remains as a reminder of the risks associated with the nearby Puʻu ʻŌʻō eruption. The present volcanic activity in the uplands of Puna remind us of the message and warnings of the ‘Ōlelo No‘eau.

Belgian Priest Father John Berchmans Velghe came to the Islands in 1899; he served in South Kona and built, and painted, what is known as the ‘Painted Church’ in Honaunau.

Father John’s health deteriorated and he had to return to Belgium in 1904, he was never able to finish the church. Even throughout his last years he continued to paint and teach.

While teaching at the Sacred Hearts’ Apostolic School at Aarschot, Belgium, in around 1924 or 1926, he met the young student Matthias Gielen, who was to become Father Evarist of Hawai‘i.

Father Evarist was born in Vlytingen, Belgium in 1897; was trained at the Sacred Hearts’ Scholasticate in Father John’s birthplace, Courtrai, and was ordained at Liege in 1925.

He next studied at the Catholic University of America in Washington, DC, and consequently sent to Hawai‘i. From 1927 to 1941, he served in the Puna district of the Big Island. He built Catholic churches at Pahoa, Mountain View and Kalapana.

Father Damien Joseph DeVeuster (now Saint Damien) preceded Father John and Father Evarist to the Island of Hawai‘i (he came in 1857.) He is credited with building the first Catholic place of worship for the Puna district.

It was a small ‘house’ of bamboo poles coconut fronds and pili grass probably in Kapa‘ahu, about three miles southwest of Kalapana. Although Damien stayed only one year, it is believed he left behind a plan for the building of a more permanent church, a stone church at Kapa‘ahu called St. Joseph’s.

Sometime in the early 1900s, Father Ulrich Taube, abandoned the stone church and built a wooden church in Kalapana, closer to the villagers and Father Evarist replaced that church, close to the beach and villagers.

The church was blessed on April 19, 1931 and dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary under the title of Star of the Sea, the patroness of Catholic missions to sailors and seafarers. Stella Maris is a name for the “North Star,” Polaris, which provided navigational direction in antiquity.

The name was applied to Mary in the early centuries of the Christian Church as a sign of hope, a guiding star for Christians pointing toward her son Jesus. The Marian prayer, Ave Maris Stella, became a popular devotion during the Middle Ages. (Ohana1827)

Father Evarist painted stories of the Bible on the walls, columns and ceiling of the Star of the Sea Church; he painted to instruct his parishioners (many could not read.)

The architecture of Star of the Sea is typical of Catholic mission churches throughout the Islands, it’s a simple, rectangular building approximately 22 feet by 36 feet, clapboard sided with a steep corrugated metal gable roof, a small gable extension to the rear of the church, and a square tower to the right side capped by a hipped roof.

But, it is the relationship of the paintings to the building that enhance the architecture that makes Star of the Sea Painted Church an outstanding example.

The artwork expands the interior space, provides architectural detailing (through Corinthian columns and ribbed vaults) while also serving the crucial function of educating the congregation.

“All the windows are double and take the traditional form of the tablets of the Ten Commandments; this form is echoed, somewhat larger, by the six paintings on the barrel-vaulted ceiling.”

“The windows and the door of the confessional are framed with painted vine, leaf and jewel motifs in gold and brown over blue, and this painting likewise finds an echo in the leafy adornment of the broad, black, wooden ribs which divide the ceiling into three large sections.”

“Between each of the double windows stands a pair of Corinthian columns painted flat on the wall and seeming to support the thin moulding from which the barrel vault springs. Running the entire length of the wall is a red painted canopy from which hang five small scallops of drapery over each window and two large puffs behind the capital of each column.”

“Each of the three grand sections of the ceiling is subdivided by a pair of narrow painted ribs which start from their corners and proceed diagonally to cross at the apex of the barrel vault, leaving a large triangular area on each side; within these triangular areas appear the six large pictures”.

“All the pictures on the ceiling were painted on a light blue ground, which shows through the crackle and flake and has much to do with their generally cool tone.”

“Starting at the right near the door, these pictures are: ‘The Death of Ahab,’… ‘St. Cecilia,’… ‘The Mocking of Christ.’ Starting at the door on the left-hand side of the church, the pictures appear in the following order: ‘The Death of a Sinner,’ … ‘The Guardian Angel’… ‘Christ the King.’”

“On the arch over the recess containing the altar are four very lively angels bearing a ribbon inscribed ‘Maria ka koku O ke kai epale oe makou.’ This is translated into English along the lower edge of the arch: ‘Star of the Sea, pray for us.’”

“At the apex of the arch stands Mary holding the infant Jesus,… A large gold star appears behind this figure, and behind that is blue sea…”

“The barrel-vaulted ceiling over the altar is painted with crossed ribs and graceful leaf forms like those used elsewhere in the church, and in its free spaces appear four angels whose large wings, flowing drapery and extended gestures are the very essence of wind-whipped flight.” (Frankenstein)

Father Evarist eventually retired to Maui, and over time other artists contributed to the artwork. In 1964, at the invitation of then pastor Father Joseph McGinn, a hitchhiker artist from Athens, Georgia named George Heidler added koa wood Stations of the Cross and brightly colored paintings to the lower walls of the church.

However, in 1975, when parishioners invited the retired Father Evarist to visit in celebration of his 50th priestly anniversary, the historian Father Louis Yim relates that …

“A shocking incident took place. Without a word to anyone, the old priest went into the church with a can of light blue paint and covered over Heidler’s painted scenes on the church walls.” Father Evarist spent three months repainting and restoring his 45 year-old murals.

In 1978-79, Father Joseph E. Avery commissioned the Hilo artist George Lorch to paint a series of miniaturist murals over Gielen’s light blue paint and blank spaces.

Lorch’s work portrays figures and events of Catholic history and devotion including: Fifteen Mysteries of the Rosary in the Hawaiian language, the Miracle of the Sun at Fatima, and two priests of the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts. (Ohana1827)

On January 3, 1983 the Pu‘u ‘O‘o eruption on the east rift zone of Kilauea Volcano began. It has the distinction of being the longest-lived historical rift zone eruption at Kilauea.

In 1990, the eruption entered its most destructive phase when flows flooded the village of Kalapana. Over 100 homes were destroyed in a 9-month period. Eventually, new lava tubes formed, diverting lava away from Kalapana early in 1991. (SOEST)

Almost lost was Star of the Sea. As the lava approached, church parishioners decided to move the building to safety. The wooden Roman Catholic Church slowly made its way on a trailer down Beach Road, which crews had cleared of utility poles and overhanging tree branches. It was trucked about a mile out of town. (LA Times)

It is now situated on higher ground outside of Kalapana. Star of the Sea is owned today by the Kalapana ʻOhana Association. It was “decommissioned” by the diocese. (Hawai‘i Catholic Herald) It is now typically open to the public during the day.

No keia heiau oia ke kapu enaena.(Concerning this heiau is the burning tabu.)

‘Enaena’ means ‘burning with a red hot rage.’ The heiau was so thoroughly ‘tabu,’ or ‘kapu,’ that the smoke of its fires falling upon any of the people or even upon any one of the chiefs was sufficient cause for punishment by death, with the body as a sacrifice to the gods of the temple. (Westervelt)

Oral traditions trace the origin of Hawaiian luakini temple construction to the high priest Pā’ao, who arrived in the islands in about the thirteenth century. He introduced several changes to Hawaiian religious practices that affected temple construction, priestly ritual, and worship practices.

Prior to his coming, the prayers, sacrifices, and other ceremonial activities that the high chief and his officiating priest performed could be observed by the congregation, who periodically responded as part of the ceremony.

After Pā’ao’s arrival, temple courtyards, which were sometimes built on hillsides to add to their massiveness, were enclosed with high stone walls, preventing the masses from participating as freely in the worship ceremonies.

In addition, new gods; stronger kapu; an independent, hereditary priesthood; wooden temple images; and human sacrifices became established parts of the religious structure. Pā’ao erected the first luakini (Wahaula) at Puna, Hawaiʻi, followed by Moʻokini Heiau at Kohala. These structures signaled a new era in Hawaiian religious practices. (NPS)

On the southeast coast of Hawaiʻi near Kalapana is one of the largest, oldest and best preserved heiau. Its walls are several feet thick and in places ten to twelve feet high. It is divided into rooms or pens, in one of which still lies the huge sacrificial stone upon which victims – sometimes human – were slain before the bodies were placed as offerings. (Westervelt, 1915)

“At our visit to the scene we were shown the small cove, deep down the jagged bluffs of Puna’s coast line, at the southern end of Wahaʻula premises, where the bones of the slain were washed, and to this day is known as Holoinaiwi.” (Thrum, 1904)

This heiau is now called Wahaʻula (red-mouth). In ancient times it was known as Ahaʻula (the red assembly), possibly denoting that at times the priests and their attendants wore red mantles in their processions or during some part of their sacred ceremonies. (Westervelt)

“The Heiau of Wahaʻula is built on an ʻaʻa flow, and the ascent to it is by terraces. Upon the first terrace the female members of the royal family brought their offerings which were taken by the priests. Beyond this first terrace no female was allowed to pass.”

“Two more terraces brings one to the enclosure or temple, in the shape of a quadrangle 132 feet long, by 72 feet wide. A stone wall encloses the temple, 6 feet high and 4 feet wide. The main entrance faces the East, flanked on either side by two smaller entrances. Immediately in front of this entrance stand the remains of the old temple, which was destroyed by the ʻaʻa flow on which the present one stands.”

“Across the southern end extends a stone platform some 3 feet high built in the shape of two semi-circles connected by a straight platform. Between these semi-circles was placed the presiding deity, and on either hand were placed the offerings of fruits, etc., while immediately in front, on a small raised platform were placed the human sacrifices, which were always slain in the main entrance to the heiau.”

“Immediately in front of this altar for human sacrifices, and extending across the enclosure, stood the priests’ house. sacred to them alone. In the rear of this was the royal house, where the members of the royal family assembled during the days devoted to the sacrifices. The rest of the enclosure was paved.” (Thrum)

“Water-worn pebbles were carried from the beach and strewn over the floor, making a smooth place for the naked feet of the temple dwellers to pass without injury from the sharp-edged lava. Rude grass huts built on terraces were the abodes of the priests and high chiefs who visited the places of sacrifice.”

“Elevated, flat-topped piles of stones were built at one end of the temple for the chief idols and the sacrifices placed before them. Simplicity of detail marked every step of temple erection.” (Westervelt)

“(I)in the original enclosure of the heiau of Wahaʻula was a sacred grove, said to contain one or more specimens of every tree growing on the Hawaiian group, a number of which, or their descendants, had survived when he visited the place in 1869. … It was built in the quadrangular or parallelogram form which characterized all the heiaus built under and after the religious regime introduced by Pāʻao.” (Fornander)

Beyond the heiau, on the makai side of the trail, is pointed out the footprint of Niheu, a demi-god, as well as the mark of an arrow which he shot at another demi-god who came to fight him. Further west, makai of the place where the trail turns mauka, is Kamoamoa, where the ranch driving pens are.

Here are two wells with fair water, and also a fine natural arch by the sea. Here are also a few interesting rock carvings. The most easily found of these is about a hundred yards from the paddock extension towards Kalapana, and may be located by following the line of this extension’s makai wall in an easterly direction.

The trail is straight, with a bad grade, but paved, until it has reached well up the bluff, where it passes the Pea house, the last habitation before the Crater Hotel is reached. From Pea’s it is a good eight miles to the Makaopuhi crater. The trail is narrow, passes through splendid forest, and is, though seldom used, quite easily followed. (Kinney, 1913)

“Tradition credits a rebuilding of the temple to Imaikalani, a famous chief of Puna, and Kaʻū, in the time of Keawenui-a-umi, in the sixteenth century. It was repaired again in the time of Kalaniʻōpuʻu, about 1770, and in the time of Kamehameha I, it had its final renovation.” (Thrum)

“This was the last heiau destroyed when the ancient tabus and ceremonial rites were overthrown by the chiefs just before the coming of Christian missionaries. At that time the grass houses of the priests were burned and in these raging flames were thrown the wooden idols back of the altars and the bamboo huts of the soothsayers and the rude images on the walls, with everything combustible which belonged to the ancient order of worship. Only the walls and rough stone floors were left in the temple. (Westervelt)

Kīlauea’s ongoing Puʻu ʻŌʻō eruption started on January 3, 1983 when ground fissures opened up and “curtains of fire” (long thin fountains of molten lava) issued from a 3½-miles long discontinuous fissure system in the remote rainforest of the middle east rift zone of the volcano.

Since then, about 500-acres have been added to the Big Island (that volume of lava could have filled 1.5-million swimming pools. The coastal highway has been closed since 1987, as lava flows covered 8 miles to as great a depth as 80 feet. 214-homes were destroyed.

“The apprehensions uniformly entertained by the natives, of the fearful consequences of Pele’s anger, prevented their paying very frequent visits to the vicinity of her abode; and when, on their inland journeys, they had occasion to approach Kirauea, they were scrupulously attentive to every injunction of her priests, and regarded with a degree of superstitious veneration and awe the appalling spectacle which the crater and its appendages presented.”

“The violations of her sacred abode, and the insults to her power, of which we had been guilty, appeared to them, and to the natives in general, acts of temerity and sacrilege; and, notwithstanding the fact of our being foreigners, we were subsequently threatened with the vengeance of the volcanic deity, under the following circumstances.” (Ellis, 1831)

The Wahaʻula Heiau was threatened three times in 1989 and once in 1990, but the lava flowed only up to the walls before diverting around them, but destroyed the visitor center and related facilities (built by the National Park Service in 1964, was destroyed by lava in June 1989.) However, a subsequent 1997 flow breached the walls and covered the heiau. (star-bulletin)

The image shows a drawing of Wahaʻula Heiau. (HerbKane) In addition, I have added other images in a folder of like name in the Photos section on my Facebook and Google+ pages.

Images of Old Hawaiʻi

People, places, and events in Hawaiʻi’s past come alive through text and media in “Images of Old Hawaiʻi.” These posts are informal historic summaries presented for personal, non-commercial, and educational purposes.

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Hoʻokuleana LLC is a Planning and Consulting firm assisting property owners with Land Use Planning efforts, including Environmental Review, Entitlement Process, Permitting, Community Outreach, etc. We are uniquely positioned to assist you in a variety of needs.